What’s good for nature is good for culture.
And vice versa.
In Burundi, I was greeted by multiple Ingoma performances… dances set to the thundering royal drumbeats that carried throughout a hillside.
Then my friends showed me the tree the drums were made from. Cordia Africana. AKA Sudanese Teakwood. An endangered tree, whose wood is irreplaceable when it comes to getting the thundering sound just right.
In Alaska, I became intrigued and invested in native languages that were down to a few dozen speakers.
I found a map that showed the correlation between places where languages were going extinct and places where wildlife was going extinct.
And it all became clear.
Countless cultural traditions are at risk as habitats are threatened. But efforts to protect nature can help preserve culture. And promoting the agency of indigenous groups also has benefits to nature.
What’s good for nature is good for culture.